Chapter 538 The last straw that broke the camel's back

  Sberg originally thought he must be finished.

  His boss Wei Jia will definitely bribe the people in the prison to let him enter vertically and exit horizontally.

  However, what he did not expect was that the fellow workers did not abandon him. They surrounded the prison gate and even alarmed the militia.

  The prisoners in the prison watched the excitement inside, whispering curiously.

   "Big Horned Deer God...I've never seen this before."

   "What are they trying to do?"

   "It's better to fight!" A desperado with his life on his back clenched his fists excitedly, ready to take the opportunity to escape from prison.

   Siberg, who was sitting in the corner, coughed lightly.

   "There won't be a fight...probably not."

  Everyone looked at him.

  Sberger was a little scared, shrank back, and said in a low voice.

   "I... read them some stories. The Awakened Ball knows that killing Stephen won't solve any problems..."

  The prisoners looked at each other.

  Although they didn't know what was going on, their intuition told them that those people outside might have something to do with the skinny guy in front of them.

   The desperado walked up to Sberg, squatted down, and stared at him for a while.

   Just when Sberg was too nervous, he suddenly said.

   "Poll? Stephen? What's that?"

  Sberger froze for a moment.

   "...Well, that's a long story."

   The desperado sat on the ground and waved his hands.

   "Don't worry, just take your time, anyway, you won't be able to get out for a while, and it just so happens that I am too... We have plenty of time."

   Seeing the prisoners staring at him curiously, Sberg swallowed and nodded hastily.

   "Okay...then let me start from the beginning."

  Bohr was born in a slum at the foot of the huge wall, and he was an out-and-out country bumpkin from the outer city.

   But who was in town to begin with?

  Big Rock City was not built in a day...

  He told the story of Bohr in a eloquent tone, and soon he found that not only the prisoners in the prison, but even the guards at the gate were leaning on the railing and listening.

   This is the story of a little man.

  As the old man said, a mere awakened person cannot become a climate.

   But here, who is not a little guy?

   After the story was told for a while, the commotion outside ended, and the prison was full.

   Then another boss came over, pretending hypocritically, trying to take his workers back, but people were not willing to go with him at all.

"Go home, my children! The environment here is terrible, gloomy and cold! You go home with me first, and we can sit down and talk if you have any requests... How about I play Mr. House's broadcast for you? Your favorite channel."

  The fat guy was all smiles and flattery, and amused the surrounding workers. Everyone had never seen such a kind expression on his face.

   "Home? Are you talking about your broken factory?"

   "Hahaha, then I won't go back with you!"

   "That's it! It's warm here! Not only is it not gloomy, but it doesn't leak the wind, and there are stories to listen to!"

   "Why don't you come in too!"

  The boss is in a hurry.

  Why are these people so reticent?

  Thinking of the deadline of the order, he cried out.

"Are you crazy! I can't complete the order, and the factory has no money! The IOUs in your hands are real paper! In the end, you are the ones who hurt yourself! I slapped my **** and left, and you will become poorer and poorer." , I can’t even afford nutrition cream!”

   No wonder they are poor!

   Not smart, lazy, and mean!

"Then you think we are crazy," a young man looked at him with a hint of disdain in his eyes, "We don't care anymore, anyway, no matter how rich you are, you won't share with us, so it's better to make you poorer, Maybe you will love us more."

   "Haha, he's still trying to reason with us!"

   "Don't talk about it buddy, go to the roof of the building for us to see if the wind is strong!"

  The boss's feeble arguments were drowned out by the continuous ridicule.

  He had already reached this point, no matter what he said, it was useless, even if he endured the pain and offered to pay some wages, no one responded.

   But he doesn't regret sending IOUs, which is the greatest invention, he only regrets not buying some slaves as an emergency.

  Big Rock City allows slaves to be traded, but slaves are too stupid and always break the machines, and no one wants to use them over time. On the contrary, the free survivors worked harder and eliminated the slaves eight lifetimes earlier, but he did not expect such an intense "indiscriminate disaster" to occur today.

  In fact, there were less than 200 workers at the entrance of the beer hall, but in just one afternoon, half of the workers in the industrial area became members of the workers' association.

  Everyone sat on the floor in the prison.

Seeing that they were not causing trouble and just listening to the story, the warden turned a blind eye to Sberg's reading of the story, and even allowed them to leave the prison and walk around freely... After all, the prison can't hold so many people, counting these people The names are enough for them to copy until tomorrow, so they can only be allowed to make do in the corridor first.

  It's crowded here, but it's also very warm, and there are even electric lights and nutritional creams.

   "Brothers, this is heaven!"

   "We should have come in here!"

   "When the noble masters want to arrest the entire city, they have to build a prison the size of Boulder City."

   "Hahaha! Maybe they will renovate our house!"

  Although it is just having fun while suffering, a group of people having fun while suffering together is not bitter at all, but full of fun.

  Everyone discussed the continuation of the story together, and agreed that there was one Kent missing in the story of Ball the Awakened, and clamored for Sberg to include this funny clown.

Sberg vaguely felt that it was too much to humiliate the comrades who worked together in this way, so he persuaded the excited everyone to save Kent some face, deleted a syllable, changed it to "Ken", and remarked as "Spit, And a man who sticks his **** to the whip of Sir Stephen's."

   This is a compromise.

大家也点头同意了，毕竟欺负一个窝里的老鼠确实没什么意思，即便肯特不爱他们，发自内心地厌恶脏兮兮的他们，他们也不好真去揍他—那会让更多犹豫不The decided child becomes Kent.

  Everyone just be themselves.

  They don't have any lofty ideals, they just want their share.

   These days, Sberg is doing well in prison, after all, he is the only one who can bring entertainment to the people here.

  Sberger faintly felt that although their warden always had a cold face, he actually sympathized with them in his heart.

  That person has no black card and no bargaining chip. After all, he is still a small person, and he can't get much money. What's more, the chips are slowly running out of things to buy recently, and it won't be long before everyone is equally poor.

   Later, at a story meeting, the warden interjected intentionally or unintentionally in a teasing tone, asking the workers, "Is the prisoner considered a worker?"

   Without waiting for the workers to speak, Sberg immediately replied, "All salaried people count."

  The warden didn’t say anything at the time, but the food in the entire prison got better later, at least the nutrient cream was not mixed with water.

   In this way, another week passed, and in mid-December, the weather was getting colder and colder. The warden got a batch of cheap scraps, and the carpenter and blacksmith teamed up to use the scraps to make a heater for the prison. Not only did the workers no longer have to suffer from the cold, but the guards who were unwilling to huddle with the workers were also much warmer.

Sberg secretly wrote a letter, and asked a familiar jailer to send it to the Union embassy, ​​and sent it to his editor, Miss Dolly, asking "Survivor Daily" to exchange his remuneration for silver coins and buy some corn Send to Boulder Prison. And when he saw hills of corn and bags of radishes and potatoes in the open space of the prison, he was taken aback.

  He didn't even know that he could buy so many things with his little royalties!

   Later, the guy who worked in the flour mill made a flour grinding tool, and the guy from the cannery made stew for everyone. When you are full, you have to find something to do. The engineer in the repair shop simply gave a class for everyone, and the master in the chemical plant talked about chemistry...

  There is everything here, it doesn’t look like a prison, but like an orphanage, no one cares about the begging of the bosses anymore. Although there was an element of anger, they did prove with their actions that they could live better without Master Stephen!

  Because he didn't have to work on the assembly line, Sberg also had more time to polish Ball's story more like that.

   At this time, someone proposed to establish a rule, or program. After all, even the gangs outside the giant wall have rules, and they have to have one.

  Leading people up in a swarm and rushing to disperse. It was a trick, and in the end there was nothing but chicken feathers. Instead, the real robbers and real thieves in the prison saw the joke.

  The Workers Association should discuss with everyone, solicit the opinions of every worker, use communication without threats, and clarify what everyone wants, how to get it, and how to win, just like fighting a war... Only in this way can we truly unite.

  Someone proposed to let Sberg be the chairman, Sberg quickly waved his hand and refused, saying that he is not the material for that, he just needs to be a secretary, everyone had better raise their hands and choose someone who can really take the lead.

  However, he felt that everyone was right, and he was very grateful that he wrote in the story of the awakened Ball that day—

  “…beating Stephen up won’t solve anything, not even taking off his belt and **** on him. Killed a big rat, no more dead bodies in the street, more flies.”

  “…One man is weak, but as long as we are united, Stephen will fear us, and all Stephens will!”

  My hunch might be right.

  This winter will not be too difficult...

  …

   After reading the story one day, Sberg yawned and went back to the prison to sleep.

  The members of the Workers’ Association separated the snoring workers from the non-snoring workers a long time ago, so that everyone could rest, and politely assigned him the confinement room—a small dark single room, so that he could calm down and write stories.

  However, unlike usual, when Sberg walked into the small black room and closed the door, he found that there was another person here.

  The man was not tall, even a little short, with a pair of green eyes like a wolf, which startled him.

   It seemed that he was not afraid of him running away at all, the man looked at him with the gaze of a poisonous snake, and said slowly.

   "Someone wants your life."

  Sberg felt his hands and feet were cold.

This guy…

   Maybe it's a real awakener!

  His Adam's apple moved, and he spoke.

"who…"

   "A big guy, I don't know either."

   "I was asking for your name," Sberg swallowed, staring at him nervously, "You know my name, but I don't know yours yet."

  The man played with the dagger in his hand and said casually.

   "Xiaodao, as long as I can remember, everyone calls me this... Do you know what my name means? When I go down, ask me to settle the score?"

  Sberger shook his head.

   "No... everything is over when a person dies. In fact, there is no big-horned deer **** at all, and there may be no afterlife world, although I only recently learned about it."

   "Huh?" Xiaodao wasn't very concerned, but he wasn't in a hurry to complete the task either.

  It is very lonely in the wasteland, the settlement is a jungle, and the jungle is also outside the settlement, and there are whispers of wild beasts inside and outside.

   It's not bad to let this guy talk, most people only say a few words before they die, he likes the employer's money, and he likes to listen to the last words of the deceased.

  Sberger paused and continued.

   "But... even if there is no afterlife, when a person dies, his name will continue to live in the memory of others, so names are very important, and it is definitely not meaningless."

"Are you procrastinating?" Xiaodao yawned, his eyes suddenly rolled, and he continued to stare at him, "Actually, it's not necessary. To tell you the truth, another big man also gave money. He is just the opposite. He doesn't want You are dying so soon, let me make you half-dead, such as cutting off your hands and feet, making your voice hoarse... In short, just keep your breath."

  Sberger felt cold all over his body.

  He has no doubt that the person in front of him has that ability, just like Bohr can beat up Master Stephen, the awakened one is still very strong against ordinary people.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you are a coward just like everyone else, the only difference is that you haven't peed your pants yet," Xiaodao stared at his face, a little disappointed, and said jokingly, "I really don't know what's so great about a little person like you Yes, with so many big shots around you, this is the first time I have received two bounties on the same head... By the way, I heard that the big shot in the northern suburbs seems to have invited you to visit him?"

  An expression of interest suddenly appeared on his face, and his sinister eyes were like letters spit out by a poisonous snake, cruising on Sberg's face.

   "You said... If I take you to the northern suburbs, will the managers there reward me as a commander?"

  Sberg coughed lightly.

   "Cough... That lord may give you a sum of money, but he probably won't let you be the commander. These are two different things."

  Xiaodao looked at him disappointedly.

   "That's a pity...although the money is not bad."

   Paused, he continued.

   "You haven't answered my question yet... What's the secret of a guy like you that has so many big shots staring at you. Do you know something, like the location of the black box, or something valuable?"

"No."

"No?"

   "I didn't lie to you," Sberg stared at the dagger in his hand, "I'm just a little guy who reads newspapers... How could there be such a thing."

   "Hehe...I believe it."

  Xiaodao got up from the hard bed with a smile, walked to Sberg, and turned the dagger in his hand.

"Okay, I'll give you another chance to live. You can write a letter to the big man in the northern suburbs. If he is willing to pay a sum of money, I will consider selling you to him... Ah yes, I only want Dinar or Cr .”

   Of course, he was just thinking about it.

   After all, the other two adults also gave a lot, so he can kill this guy and earn all the bounties from the three big men.

  The wasteland is so big that he can run away anywhere. He is just a wandering wastelander, and he is not interested in this twisted settlement.

  However, what he didn't expect was that the worthless coward in front of him rejected his proposal without hesitation.

   "I can't write."

  Xiaodao looked at him in surprise.

"you sure?"

  Although he was terrified in his heart, Sberg did not flinch and stared at this guy intently.

   "If you want me to beg for mercy from Master Weijia, I can...but you want to use me to blackmail that adult, so you should die as soon as possible."

There is no doubt that he is just a small person. He has been living like a mouse for more than 20 years. He can't understand why so many people are interested in his head, but if he must die, he would rather give his life to it. adults.

No reason.

  He thinks it's worth it!

   "Why? There must be a reason?"

   “…dignity.”

"what is that?"

   "People like you won't know, do it!" Sberg clenched his fists, planning to fight desperately, at least be a brave man and die like a hero.

   Xiaodao curled his lips, stopped talking nonsense with this guy, and stabbed the dagger in his hand cleanly.

  Seeing a sharp object piercing his head, the prey will subconsciously raise their arms to protect the head first, and this is exactly what he wanted.

  He intends to amputate this guy's two hands first, and then pick his legs and make his throat hoarse... He has done similar tasks countless times, and he is confident enough to do it neatly.

However-

   This time he missed.

  The dagger seemed to have been cut on a transparent wall, and he tried to retract it in a cold sweat, but found that the dagger seemed to be stuck in the frozen air.

  Sberger was also stupid.

  He just raised his arms to block, but he saw ripples in the air in front of him, and a figure gradually emerged.

   "Damn—who are you?!" Xiaodao screamed in horror, looking in horror at the figure that appeared in front of him like a ghost.

  The black mirror and helmet obscured the man's face, and she seemed to be a woman, or maybe not at all.

  She held the blade of the dagger quietly. The number X-16 was engraved on the slightly raised breastplate, coupled with the logo of the giant stone military industry. This number seemed to be endowed with some unusual meaning.

  She seems to have been here for a long time, and even entered this room earlier than both of them, but neither of them noticed her existence.

   Optical camouflage!

   A trace of panic flashed in the beast-like eyes, Xiaodao let go of the dagger, pulled out the short knife tied to his leg, and slashed at the person in front of him.

   There is no crisp sound of jingle chirping.

  He didn't even see what the man did, he flew out like a kite with a broken string, and hit the wall on one side of the confinement room heavily.

"ah…"

   Many ribs are broken!

  The spine seems to be broken, the lower limbs are not in control, and the urine is leaking out...

   At the last moment he wanted to beg for mercy, but before he could utter a sound, a dagger was driven through his throat.

  He could only watch the man walk in step by step, holding the dagger casually, and drew out the blood-stained short blade together with his consciousness.

   The battle lasted only two seconds, but blood was everywhere.

  However, the man standing in the pool of blood acted as if nothing had happened.

   Never seen such a **** scene, Sberg only felt that his legs were filled with lead, and his back was on fire. It took a long time to squeeze out a trembling sentence from his stiff throat.

   "You... killed someone."

   Put away the dagger casually, X-16 ignored his question and looked back at him.

   "Someone wants to see you."

  Sberg swallowed.

"who…"

   "You'll know when you get there."

  Hearing this sentence, a bit of bitterness appeared on Sberg's face.

  Dare to kill people in this city at will, and still in this prison, presumably only the big shots in the inner city.

  To be honest, he didn't want to meet that dangerous guy, but he didn't have the right to refuse.

   After all, he saw it with his own eyes. She executed the awakened person like a grasshopper, and it would take only a second to kill herself.

   "Can I...can I say goodbye to my friends?" Sberg said beseechingly.

  From the dark and cold mirror surface, words that did not surprise him floated out.

"no."

  …

  The Valley province has been snowing recently.

   And the download is not small!

  In order to prevent the snow from crushing the roofs of farmers in the West District, Dawn City organized a group of players and local residents to work on clearing the snow.

  Although the money given is not much, but there is regional prestige that can be obtained, some players who are interested in public affairs go without saying a word.

   It happens that they also have strength.

  In winter, the number of alien species in the valley province dropped sharply, and many monsters went to hibernate. Before the wave of spring comes, Chu Guang also has to find something for these energetic little players to do, lest they get bored and do things everywhere.

  Seeing that the residents of the refuge rolled up their sleeves to help, the residents of Dawn City also went up to help, some helped the ladder, and some handed the shovel.

  This winter is indeed much warmer than last year.

  In addition to the internal affairs of the alliance, Chu Guang has been keeping a close eye on the neighbor next door.

   It's not that I'm planning to pick up the leak, but I'm afraid that this **** pot will explode.

   Currently there are about two hundred players in Boulder City, and they will occasionally post their experiences in Boulder City to the official website.

  These players are like one eye inserted in Boulder City. Chu Guang has ordered Xiao Qi to compile these posts into a book, and select some clues with high confidence from them.

  According to the information compiled by Xiaoqi, the situation in Boulder City is far more exaggerated than he expected.

  If the foreign debt of the alliance is expanding at a geometric rate, then the inflation of Boulder City has almost covered the towering outer wall.

   There is no doubt that Malvern can no longer hold back inflation.

  Since the turmoil in the industrial zone, the false prosperity has erupted like an avalanche, and the fuse that Chu Guang predicted was finally ignited.

  In the face of this crisis whose source cannot be seen, Malvern is not useless, but there are indeed not many cards he can play.

  Being so poor, he tried his best to no avail, so he could only drag Dulong in the city hall to intervene in the production of the industrial zone with a not-so-smart administrative intervention.

  For example, forcibly intercepting a batch of goods that should have been sent to the alliance to deliver orders, forcibly sending intermediate products to the downstream of their own industrial chain, or sending finished products directly to stores, in short, giving priority to filling the shelves of Boulder City.

   The factory of the alliance is indifferent.

  The Ministry of Industry of the Alliance issued an early warning, telling everyone to prepare for the "earthquake" in advance, speed up the replacement of industries, and purchase intermediate products from places other than Boulder City as much as possible to avoid chain reactions caused by the other party's breach of contract.

   And the factory owners in the Boulder City industrial area are too difficult.

  Originally, a large number of skilled workers were imprisoned and the workers collectively smashed their assembly lines almost to a halt.

  Now the gentlemen can remember where the things on the shelves came from, but they refuse to use their cerebellum to think about it, and only come up with a folk prescription for treating headaches and feet.

  Of course they can stop delivering the alliance's orders and give priority to fulfilling the shelves in Boulder City, but the premise is that someone can pay the liquidated damages for them.

It's a pity that the Governor of Malvern and the Minister of Dulong seem to be neither willing to pay liquidated damages for them, nor to make up for the price difference of raw material inflation, and even ask them to sell the produced goods at a price lower than the cost. But the loans they take to expand production cannot be stopped.

   This is a steal!

  They didn’t have much oil and water in the first place, and now they still have to take a small amount of profits—or even rebate money, to suppress the hyperinflation caused by the “overheated economy” for the Malvern gentlemen.

  Although the alliance also cuts leeks from its own factory, they harvest them in a disciplined, organized and disciplined manner.

The profiteers in the industrial zone were forced to have no choice but to show their talents. Those with connections found a way to bypass the city hall's regulations and secretly sold the prohibited goods to their neighbors. Anyway, the Governor of Malvern and the Director of Dulong definitely agreed. They didn't dare to intercept Master Sid's goods.

   Those who have no connections can only admit defeat, but admitting defeat does not mean admitting losses. The means of production are in the hands of profiteers after all. If they can’t sell the milk, they can dump the milk. If they don’t allow it, they will kill the cow to eat meat.

   And Dulong's intervention didn't really work. He and Malvin still underestimated the "greed" of people in their predicament.

  The shelves were quickly swept away. When the crisis was detonated, the thing was like a black hole, and no matter how much material was thrown in, it would be in vain.

Goods that were supposed to be sold at a low price have become the first to get the most and the one with the highest price. Those who get a large amount of goods at a high price will not be satisfied with the food and clothing in front of them. They not only have to stockpile enough for half a year's consumption, but also hold back a part of it to sell , earn money back.

  Even squirrels know how to hoard pine cones that are several times their size for the winter, let alone greedy people. Soap and sausages became hard currency first, followed by cigarettes and booze. If you really can't buy hard currency, you can exchange the chips you can't spend into other things, such as bonds or S coins with strong growth.

  The chips circulating in the giant wall are countless times more than the total number of commodities in the giant wall, and the hot money with nowhere to go is scurrying around like cockroaches.

   Of course, there is nothing like sound silver coins as an investment of any kind.

  Suddenly, there were some small vendors selling food outside the huge wall. They were all alliance merchants. They didn't want more and more bargaining chips, and only accepted silver coins with stable purchasing power.

  The rich people in Boulder City often have to go to the black market to exchange a bag full of chips for a few silver coins, and then go to the gate of the outer city to buy potatoes, corn, and daily necessities.

  Those figures pushing the cart seemed to be a ray of light in the heavy snow, illuminating countless longing faces.

  And under the shadow that the light cannot shine, there are still some people who are in a hurry.

  They often wear clean cotton clothes, elegant and decent like businessmen. When they see some businessmen from the alliance, they lean over and hand out a brochure.

   It says some "good things" that you can't usually buy.

  They are brokers.

  They dare to sell anything and take everything.

   Some of them are the subordinates of the small nobles or factory owners in the inner city, and some are simply militiamen in civilian clothes.

In the hands of these miraculous little characters, a thousand cotton-padded clothes can be exchanged for a loom with a daily output of 10,000 meters, and a few bottles of highly distilled alcohol can be exchanged for a 90% new military exoskeleton. There is no distilled alcohol. Just a few cases of beer or cans.

  Someone took out a black card, saying that as long as they gave him enough silver coins, he would take them into this "big casino" to find fun that the alliance couldn't find.

  The casino is still operating normally, and the death lottery draws are being drawn every day. Melvin is still trying his best to put out the fire, but the flames burning on the woodpile are getting stronger and stronger.

  Everyone in this casino is more or less insane...

   And just when Chu Guang thought this was the limit, a piece of bad news suddenly came from his Foreign Minister Cheng Yan.

  After listening to his report, Chu Guang's face changed slightly.

   "Is that Sberg... dead?"

-

(I have some things to go out today, so I will update it in advance. The Boulder City chapter is estimated to have three chapters. By the way, it seems that Dianniang will broadcast live in a few days. I haven’t decided what to broadcast yet. There are too many games I want to play ,Headache.)

  (end of this chapter)